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Shadi Williams
Name: Shadi Williams Gender: Female Age: 16 School: Davison Secondary School Hobbies and Interests: TV & Film, Electronics, Carpentry, Woodworking, SoTF-TV Appearance: Shadi is tall for her age, standing just shy of six feet tall, and weighing 170 lbs. She is extremely fit due to many of her hobbies requiring quite a bit of heavy lifting, as well as being a health nut in general. She is of predominately of Native American descent, which shows mainly in her skin tone, which is a slightly darker tan shade. Her hazel-green eyes are also somewhat almond shaped, under which she has a slightly pointed nose and full lips. Her hair is naturally black, but she tends to bleach it. She also keeps her hair rather short, rarely reaching past her ears, which she likes to spike at wild angles when she isn’t feeling too lazy to do so. Shadi rarely wears make up, as she sees it as a distraction and would rather spend that time working on one of her various projects. Clothing wise Shadi wears very practical outfits for her hobbies. On the day of the hiring she was wearing a pair of dark blue denim overalls, with a plain grey long sleeved shirt underneath, and a pair of black leather gloves. She was also wearing a sturdy pair of steel toed boots, due to being in shop class at the time, as well as her safety goggles which are almost always present around her neck, as she replaced the arms with an adjustable strap. She also has a number of necklaces of some of the work she has done with her father, which hang off her neck at variable lengths. Biography: Shadi Williams was born and raised in New Mexico, to parents Dakota and Lulu Williams. Her parents were newlyweds when she was born, and they were as excited as any couple for their first child. The first few years of Shadi’s life were about as typical as you can get. However, on her parent’s front, things were not going well. The two had married rather quickly, and after a few years of marriage, the two found themselves growing distant, ultimately leading to them filing for divorce when Shadi was three. Her father Dakota ultimately won custody of her, and the two moved to Albuquerque. Living with a single parent proved to be tough for Shadi, especially since her father, a carpenter by trade, spent a lot of his time working in order to provide for his daughter. As a result, Shadi spent a lot of time by herself, under the supervision of various baby sitters. Shadi was always a curious baby, and seemed to really enjoy building things, spending quite a bit of time playing with her father’s old Lego set, which he entrusted to her once he was confident enough that she wouldn’t shove any of the pieces in her mouth. Shadi entered school when she was 5, being enrolled in the P.M. Kindergarten class. She spent the mornings at the daycare attached to her elementary school, and then her afternoons were spent in class. Generally she got along well with the other kids, though when left to her own devices she tended to stick to herself. After school she would go back to the daycare for a couple more hours until her father came to pick her up, where she would spend the rest of the day with him. Shadi adored her father, and the two got along really well. They would spend their nights cooking dinner together, and they would talk about their days over their meal. Being a carpenter, the two were fairly well off, enough to be able to afford a small house large enough for the two of them. Her father converted the small garage into a wood working shop, and usually after dinner he would spend some time in there, while Shadi would do her homework or watch TV. As she got older, her father started teaching her about woodworking, showing her how to handle all of the tools and machines, and even allowing her to help him with some of his projects once he felt that she understood the safety protocols deeply enough. Shadi loved spending this time with her father, and she found that she was a natural. To this day, she still enjoys spending time in the shop with her father, though with school getting tougher on her she finds herself having less time to do so. School wise, Shadi was a decent enough student. She maintained good enough grades to comfortably pass her classes, but nothing too spectacular, at least not in elementary school. Once she hit high school, her grades began to improve significantly, thanks mostly to her elective courses. The high school that she chose to go to offered a large amount of courses in various technical fields, and upon entering 9th grade she took a general introductory course, in order to see what she enjoyed the most. Aside from the woodworking, she found that she enjoyed working with electronics as well. She also found herself becoming more interested in TV & film, mainly the technical side of things. She enjoyed learning about how cameras worked and lighting and all the other technical aspects of creating a film, and in order to get some hands on experience with some aspects of it, she joined the drama club as their lighting technician. Like many people growing up, Shadi was well aware of the phenomenon that was SoTF-TV. Her father generally didn’t approve of the show, but it always held a cursory interest to her, namely since she would often hear kids in school talking about it. Once she entered high school, she became more exposed to the show, which was inevitable given that her school was sponsored by the people who made the show. She started to look up old clips of the show online, and slowly she became a fan of the show, watching the current seasons as they happened. Her father wasn’t the biggest fan of this, but allowed her daughter to watch them anyways since he figured it couldn’t hurt anything. Being the only child of a single-parent household, Shadi had her share of hardships growing up. She rarely spoke to her mother, and currently the two have no contact. Her father did everything he could to make sure that Shadi would be raised right, and for the most part he succeeded. She won’t admit it, but Shadi harbours some resentment for her mother for not making more of an effort to be a part of her life, but she has learned to bury those emotions very well. She looks up to her father quite a bit, due to his nurturing nature and because she understands how much he had to work in order to raise her. She has been trying to give back, picking up a part time job at an electronics repair store as their cashier, though she occasionally does some under the table work. While Shadi is generally a friendly and likeable person, her temper can be fairly explosive. Certain subjects, particularly anything having to deal with her mother, make her feel extremely uncomfortable, and while she will try to keep calm when discussing it, she has been known to lose her temper quite spectacularly if pushed too far. On the occasions she does, it can be hard to rationalise with her, and generally she’s best left on her own until she calms down. In her junior year, Shadi took as many of the technical courses she could, and as a result she tends to spend most of her time in the computer labs or shops. She almost always has at least two or three projects going on at any given time, which she somehow manages to balance well with her social life, as she tends to spend a lot of time with her friends whenever she can. She hopes to one day follow in her father’s footsteps and start a career as a carpenter, though she isn’t keeping herself closed off to other possibilities. Advantages: Shadi is in very good shape, and is very good with her hands, thanks to her hobbies. She is also fairly strong due to the amount of lifting required. Disadvantages: Shadi has a very explosive temper, which can lead to potentially volatile situations if someone manages to set her off, as she becomes extremely aggressive and difficult to rationalise with when she gets in this state. Designated Number: Team Silver Scorpions 3 (SS3). ---- Designated Weapon: Hikory Cane Mentor Comment: "Temper appears to be a recurring problem amongst the Scorpions. Miss Williams' advantage will be in her strength and the ability to control that temper, as opposed to unleashing it. I do not have hopes for Miss Williams to go far, due to her aggression and her poor weapon. Perhaps time will make me a fool." Evaluations Handled By: 'Rocky, Mini_HELP '''Kills: 'Forrest Doe, Sarah Miller, Laura Mason, Saachi Nidal 'Killed By: 'Erik Sheely 'Collected Weapons: '''Hikory Cane (designated weapon), blackthorn shillelagh (from Forrest Doe), straight razor (from Sarah Miller) '''Allies: 'Laura Mason 'Enemies: 'Nina Riddhi, Forrest Doe, Saachi Nidal, Christine Wallis, Erik Sheely 'Mid-game Evaluation: ' Shadi woke up somewhere in the undeveloped sections of the resort, briefly feeling excitement and fear to be on her favorite show. She soon decided to prioritize locating one of her friends and obtaining a better weapon, at the same time discounting the thought of working with her team. Walking up a hill, Shadi encountered Nina Riddhi, and cheerfully called out, though when Nina asked her name, Shadi lied. The girls shook hands, but Shadi hit Nina in the leg with her assigned cane, dropping the girl to the ground, then demanded her supplies. Nina tried to resist, and Shadi beat her again with the cane, then took the bag and shoved Nina down the hill before leaving, unconcerned about the possibility Nina might seek revenge. Shadi then made her way to The World Oyster, where she found a group consisting of the members of two teams: Bunny Barlowe and Corin Albanesi from the Silver Scorpions (Shadi's own team) and Forrest Doe and Saachi Nidal from the Jade Rhinos. Shadi quickly integrated herself with the team, again under a fake name. Bunny trusted Shadi very quickly, and suggested the group split up to better search the various restaurants, pairing Forrest and the newcomer Shadi without any further supervision. Almost as soon as they were out of sight, Shadi clubbed Forrest in the back of the head with her cane, knocking him over, then rummage through his bag, finding his shillelagh. Forrest was unhappy about this, and kicked at Shadi; she retaliated by sweeping his legs from under him. Forrest threw his hat at Shadi, hoping to distract her, and then punching her in the face. Shadi was largely unfazed by the boy's attack, and managed to get the upper hand, smashing Forrest's head into the ground repeatedly until he died while, unbeknownst to her, Alice Young watched from her hiding place in a nearby cupboard. The commotion also drew the attention of Sarah Miller, who came and asked Shadi what had happened. Deciding that her classmate was a threat due to knowing her real name, Shadi charged Sarah and smashed her in the temple with her newly-acquired club, killing the girl. Shadi surveyed her injuries and told herself that she'd done her teammates a favor by killing the opposition, though knew this was a bad excuse, and then set out once more, resolving to try to win release by acquiring ten kills. Some time after these killings, Shadi returned to the nature walk, picking up Laura Mason along the way and feigning cooperation with the girl. When she heard gunshots off in the distance, Shadi determined to investigate, with an eye towards improving her armament; feeling her use for Laura had run its course, she distracted the girl and then smashed her in the back of the head. Shadi came upon the aftermath of a shooting perpetrated by Christopher Schwartz, and found the corpse of Genesis Bradley-Baker, from which she looted a gun, and the critically-wounded Saachi; Shadi, seeking to bolster her kill count, finished Saachi off with her shillelagh. Shadi finally found some of the source of the conflict she'd heard when she stumbled upon Christine Wallis and Erik Sheely and watched the latter kill Eden Bishop. Shadi, hoping to neutralize the pair and score further kills through quick and decisive action, opened fire, missing the bulk of her shots but shattering Erik's right elbow. She then charged Erik, who stumbled backwards over Eden's body and begged for Shadi to stop; she in turn tried to bludgeon him, but he was able to avoid the blow. Before she could try again, her attention was drawn by Christine, who stepped forwards, brandishing a meat cleaver. Christine offered Shadi a chance to flee, but Shadi, believing the girl to pose little threat, laughed at her. Christine feinted inwards, baiting an attack that left Shadi open, then incapacitating her right arm with a quick slash and following it up with a series of close range attacks that brought Shadi to the ground. As she tried to pull herself back up, she saw Erik above her; the boy raised his foot and smashed it down on Shadi's face, eventually killing her. 'Post-Game Evaluation: ' '''Memorable Quotes: *''"You can call me Bonnie."'' - Shadi lies to Nina about her name *''"Glad to finally find some teammates."'' - Shadi pretends that she plans to cooperate with the members of her team Other/Trivia *Shadi was the most prolific killer from Davison Secondary School, accounting for four kills over the course of the game. Threads Below is a list of threads that contain Shadi, in chronological order Sandbox: *A Pizza The Action SOTF-TV: *It's Only Natural! *If You Hit a Wall, Hit It Hard *Kill Your Heroes Your Thoughts Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Shadi. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here! *I have some big issues with Shadi. Her two posts in her sole Sandbox thread aren't awful, but even in them some of the issues that come to plague Shadi's narrative become apparent. There's almost no interiority or insight into Shadi's thoughts, but that choice doesn't feel calculated as with, say, Tyler Lucas or Paris Ardennes over on Main; we get snippets of musings that tell us little about Shadi (she likes meat on her pizza, but also vegetables) while more important stuff such as the nature of her friendship with Bella is either left to Bella's posts to establish or not conveyed at all. Shadi's motivations include a lot of "because it was funny," but where that works okay for Sissy it doesn't quite hold up for Shadi because the stakes are higher and the narrative seems much less aware that what she's doing is abnormal; even more than that, there's just nothing amusing to be found, whereas with Sissy's mischief the potential for humor is somewhat clear. Another issue is the slow pacing; Shadi's second post, which comprises ten sentences strung into four tiny paragraphs, comes four months after Bella's and was never followed up on further, leaving Shadi's Sandbox feeling like an afterthought. The thing about Sandbox, though, is it's normally really not that important. I've let plenty of characters with less Sandbox than Shadi slide on it, but the big difference here is Shadi is cast as a villain almost immediately and in ways that really scream for development, none of which is found in her game. We're bluntly told that she feels first excited and then, once the reality sets in, horrified to be on her favorite show, but that's pretty much it. Those feelings never seep into Shadi's narrative and are never developed or explained; indeed, her posts read largely like summaries, bluntly telling at every turn rather than inviting the reader into Shadi's mind or exploring her perspective. This is especially problematic because Shadi goes from allegedly somewhat scared to be on SOTF to coldly manipulating and then sadistically injuring Nina in the span of roughly three posts, none of which establish a baseline mental state or any sort of reason for her rapid descent into villainy. With a solid Sandbox behind her, this might not feel so jarring; a developed character can swing quickly and land well because the readers have enough to understand why things are happening. As is, it seems more driven by a desire to establish Shadi as a villain than by anything about her as a person. This lack of rationale also causes problems for Shadi due to her lack of a consistent methodology beyond lying about her name. Some of this falls into the realm of research issues, as Shadi is delighted to upgrade from her hickory cane (a heavy wooden cudgel often used as both a walking stick and a combat implement) to a blackthorn shillelagh (another heavy wooden cudgel often used as both a walking stick and a combat implement), but other elements feel deeper-seated. Shadi is supposed to be a fan of SOTF playing a somewhat logical game based on her knowledge with the aim of surviving, but her actions are haphazard in the extreme. She puts huge focus on stealing supplies (which tend to be largely incidental to success or failure), immediately discards the prospect of teamwork (despite not seeming to be planning to pursue the ten-kill release at that stage given her lack of interest in even attempting to kill the helpless Nina), turns on a potential ally moments after meeting him to mug him and then escalates that into a murder, then casually murders one of her own classmates for knowing her name and having seen her first kill (while explicitly noting that soon her actions will be widely known but at the same time spinning their being known now by this one specific person as "bad" and thus deserving of death with no further explanation). So the issue here is, there's pretty much no reason for readers to get invested in Shadi. There's no reason to care about her as a person due to her narrative or personality, as neither is particularly developed. There's no real reason to be invested in her villainous actions, because they seem keyed more towards being villainous for its own sake than towards following any logical or even associative pattern. There's no reason to be care much about what she means to anyone else because the only extent to which she matters to other narratives is her connections with Nina and Bella, and in both cases almost all of the work is done by those characters, and still doesn't ring as true as their other arcs and relationships. There's scant room to care about her role even as plot-ender, because she tends to form the weak link in her killings for the aforementioned reasons and doesn't play particularly cooperatively with the characters or scenes involved, offering the bare minimum detail and somewhat vague kill choreography. What makes me go really hard on Shadi even compared to other questionable villains, though, is that all of this stuff had come up before and been beaten to death in discussions of some of her handler's other characters, specifically Marvia Jones and Reiko Ishida on the main site, and in fact both of those characters were less representative of these issues than Shadi. Shadi's villainy seems tossed off for quick impact, but in a way that should have been eminently ineffective by this stage. The only reason this stuff worked with Ashlie Jackson was that certain extremely specific elements of the game interwove to allow for a character of her style to work without much depth or development, and none of those elements were present in TV2. - MurderWeasel Category:SOTF-TV Category:Characters